Men’s soccer road trip proves challenging

As Oles of all ages flocked to the Hill last Friday for the Homecoming festivities, the men’s soccer team donned the black and gold six hours away in Kenosha, Wis. The men went on to celebrate Ole pride in their own fashion, defeating non-conference opponent Carthage College with a score of 2-1. Continuing south to Chicago on Saturday, the St. Olaf men were halted by North Park University, who they played to a 1-0 loss.

Carthage scored early in the Friday-night contest. Less than four minutes into the game, Mike Heika sent the ball to the top right corner of the net to gain a 1-0 advantage. Seven of the Oles’ nine first-half shots went wide or high, and the Redmen maintained their lead at the 45-minute mark.

Twenty-five minutes into the second half, the Oles responded with two quick, successive blows. Off of a cross from Phumelela Sukati ’15, Kevin Skrip ’16 headed the ball past Redmen goalkeeper Milan Tijanic to tie the game. Less than two minutes later, David Rosenthal ’14 netted the game-winning goal, his team-leading fourth of the season. Sam Kaplan ’16 assisted on the play.

The Oles outshot the Redmen 22-9 in the victory.

Saturday’s game proved more challenging. Despite outshooting the Vikings by a similar margin 20-13, the Oles were unable to sneak the ball past Viking goalkeeper Tim Ahlberg. Jonas Pettersson’s goal at 14:46 of the first half was the sole point of the game, fueling North Park toward the 1-0 victory.

The Oles returned to conference play on Sept. 26, when they defeated Hamline University 4-0 at home. Next up for St. Olaf 5-3-1, 2-0-1 MIAC is a home game against St. John’s University on Sept. 29.